Elon Musk's Mars dream almost realised after machine produces Oxygen on red planet

dailystar.co.uk:

READ MORE: Cybercriminals tricking people into selling kidneys with fake £900k Google ads The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment - or 'Moxie' as it's more commonly known, has been able to create oxygen at the rate of a small tree, with the seven occasions coming in various seasons and across night and day.Research scientist at MIT, Dr Michael Hecht, who was been working on the project, said: “We have learned a tremendous amount that will inform future systems at a larger scale."MOXIE deputy principal investigator Jeffrey Hoffman added: "This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission."It's historic in that sense."The development is particularly pivotal as the creation of oxygen means a rocket can be fuelled for its return, while also allow astronauts to touch down on Mars without initially using any breathing apparatus.This is significant for Musk, who aims to eventually ferry passengers to and from the Red Planet as a commercial venture.The innovative Billionaire - who also owns electric car makers Tesla - currently has technicians working on preparing SpaceX's Starship rocket for its first orbital test flight, which could launch as soon as November.“We will have two boosters & ships ready for orbital flight by then, with full stack production at roughly one every two months,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.The plan is for the Starship spacecraft to eventually be a reusable vehicle that can take paying customers to the moon and Mars, similar to how an aeroplane is used to travel from country to country.SpaceX has a lucrative contract with NASA to build the.